A surface-active agent is a chemical substance or composition which, even used in a small amount, significantly reduces the surface tension, in particular that of water, or the surface tension between two immiscible liquids, so as to facilitate the mixing of these two liquids.
Furthermore, the amphiphilic structure of surface-active agents confers on them a particular affinity for interfaces of air/water and water/oil type and thus thereby gives them the ability to lower the free energy of these surfaces. This phenomenon is the basis for the stabilization of dispersed systems.
In the publication “Reactions of alcohols and phenols with trimethylene oxide”, S. Searles and C. F. Butler, JACS, 1954, Vol. 76, pp. 56-58, the opening of unsubstituted 1,3-propylene oxide or oxetane by various alcohols in the presence of an acidic or basic catalyst:
is described.
Nevertheless, the list of the alcohols studied is restricted to alcohols not comprising an alkyl chain capable of conferring an amphiphilic or surface-active nature on the structure of the final adducts (methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol, isopropanol, benzyl alcohol, phenol alcohols) and the use of non-hydroxylated oxetane does not make it possible to increase the functionality of the final adducts and thus to result in structures having a suitably pronounced polarity.
Patent application WO 01/14300 describes a process for the manufacture of ether alcohols from a hydroxylated oxetane and from a polyol derived from monosubstituted or disubstituted 1,3-propanediol; the molar stochiometries employed systematically involve a deficiency in hydroxylated oxetane not making possible the reduction in the hydroxyl functional groups.
Patent application EP 1 060 740 describes the preparation of polyol ethers or polyol hydroxyethers by reaction of trimethylolpropane, trimethylolbutane, pentaerythritol or dipentaerythritol with saturated or unsaturated fatty alcohols or saturated or unsaturated fatty epoxides, said preparation not involving a derivative of oxetane type among the reactants.
In the context of their research studies on the development of novel surface-active agents, the inventors have developed novel structures resulting from the condensation of oxetane synthons with fatty alcohol derivatives.